Legal-Lay Discourse and Procedural Justice in Family and County Courts

This Element examines discursive practices in court proceedings involving unrepresented parties, such as private family proceedings and small claims cases. It aims to develop a methodological and theoretical framework for exploring these practices, establish the link between legal-lay discourse and procedural justice, and present and contextualize linguistic phenomena as an inherent part of court research and practice. The Element illustrates how linguistic input can contribute to procedural changes and court reforms in different adversarial and non-adversarial legal settings.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 86 pages
Publication date: 18 April 2024
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Focusing on adversarial legal settings, this Element delves into discursive practices within court proceedings, particularly in cases involving unrepresented parties, such as private family proceedings and small claims cases. While these proceedings constitute a significant portion of the caseload in county and family courts, they pose significant challenges in terms of legal-lay communication. Drawing on court observations, alongside textual and interview data, the Element aims to accomplish three objectives: (1) establish a methodological and theoretical framework for exploring discursive practices in legal settings; (2) establish a connection between legal-lay discourse and procedural justice; and (3) present and contextualize linguistic phenomena as an inherent aspect of court research and practice.

The Element showcases how linguistic input can contribute to procedural changes and court reforms across diverse adversarial and non-adversarial legal contexts. By examining the discursive practices embedded in court processes and procedures, this research consolidates and extends the existing court research conducted within the fields of socio-legal studies and forensic linguistics.

This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

ISBN-13: 9781009377997